Zines from the Borough
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The document outlines a workshop at Brooklyn College focusing on zines, which are self-published print publications created by individuals using minimal resources. It details the Brooklyn College library's zine collection, emphasizing its commitment to local content, student work, and themes of personal importance. The collection aims to engage students and inspire them to create their own zines, featuring various teaching opportunities related to zines.
Zines from the Borough
- 1. Zines from the Borough: Teaching with the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection
- 2. Today’s Workshop/Discussion • Global view: What is a Zine? • Local view: a bit about the Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection • Application: Opportunities for Teaching and Exploration with Zines (discussion and time to look at materials)
- 3. What is a Zine? In Short, Zines Are: • Intentional print publications People make zines because they want to cut, paste, fold and stamp (zines are not blogs!) • Typically created on a photocopier • Distributed by hand, through the mail, or at events
- 4. What is a Zine? Zines are also: • Self-Published, Do-It-Yourself materials No special equipment or permissions are needed to publish: All you need is a pen, some paper, and access to a photocopier to create a zine • Labors of love, usually sold for a few dollars to cover printing costs • Inclusive media: they welcome others to create their own work and to get involved
- 5. What is inside a Zine? In terms of content, zines can be Zines “…can be about toasters, food, a written about any topic that you favorite television show, thrift can think of (and perhaps more stores, anarchism, candy, bunnies, sexu often, about topics that you al haven’t ever thought about). abuse, architecture, war, gingerbread men, activism, retirement Often zinesters begin publishing homes, comics, eating disorders, Barbie because they feel that topics that dolls-you name it. There are personal are important to them are being zines, music zines, and sport overlooked or ignored in the zines, zines about politics and zines mainstream media. about pop culture.” -Julie Bartel, From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library
- 6. What’s NOT a Zine?
- 7. Zines at Brooklyn College
- 8. The Brooklyn College Library Zine Collection Our collection primarily consists of: • Print zines. This is a print zine collection, and thus no e-zines or online materials are accepted as part of the collection at this time. • Zines that are connected to Brooklyn, support the interests of the students at Brooklyn College, or would support the curriculum of Brooklyn College. • Zines made by Brooklyn College students or alumni–any zine made by our students or alumni will be accepted into the collection (regardless of where it was created or any connections to Brooklyn). • Zines about zines, zine-making and zine culture.
- 9. What has been collected (so far) • Zines from Brooklyn • Brooklyn! And many more (we have more than 400 zines waiting to be cataloged right now) • Zines made by graduates of Brooklyn College • A number of zines by Vikki Law: Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, Tenacious: a Zine of Art & Writings by Women in Prison • S.P.A.W.N. and Guava Shakti/Ripe Guava, zines made at Brooklyn College before Zohra Saed and Robert Booras founded Upset Press • Homos in Herstory and Twinks for Sale by Elvis Bakaitis • Zines by current Brooklyn College Students • Wittgenstein, a zine made by the students who were in Ramsey Scott’s English class
- 10. Student Involvement in the Collection My hope is that this collection can become not merely a repository but a living archive of student life at Brooklyn College, and that it will inspire students to make and share their own zines. I hope to collect the work of Brooklyn College students and to share it on our shelves alongside all of the other work in the library. My goal is for the zine collection to be used by students, but further, that they will also shape it to reflect their own histories, interests and experiences. Also: opportunities for Internships and other Special Projects
- 11. Teaching with Zines A few ideas: • Classes could come to the library to view the collection and to do research (about alternative publications, media, art history, book history, the history of Brooklyn, etc.) • Zines as portfolio projects—to showcase class work at the end of a semester, etc. • Zine-making workshops • Zine Readings, zine-maker visits, etc. • Information Literacy through zines? • Brooklyn, as seen through zines and self-publishing
- 12. Other Ideas for Teaching with the Zine Collection?
- 13. What to Watch For • The grand opening of the Browsing Collection • Any Brooklyn zines: please send them to us & tell zinester friends about our collection • News, updates and more information at the Zines @ Brooklyn College website
- 14. http://brooklyncollegezines.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ More information about the collection as well as special projects to come! Prof. Alycia Sellie Library Department asellie@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Editor's Notes
- #7: Also: newsletters, magazines, etc.
- #9: Ideally, we will collect 2 copies of each zine: one copy will be preserved in Archives and Special Collections and the other will live in a Browsing Collection (to come) on the first floor of the library.
- #12: The zine collection could become a resource for a variety of classes, from Art to English, or Communication, Music…(and more!)
- #13: Part of the reason I wanted to lead this workshop was to get a better idea of how you all could envision the collection could be best used.